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Boomer & Gio

Best of Boomer & Gio on WFAN: Feb. 23-27

28 Feb 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What are the highlights of the US men's hockey team's gold medal victory?

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46 years. It took 46 years to get gold. And I think about the golden goal by Sidney Crosby in Vancouver. You think about the Four Nations, Connor McDavid, the goal to win the Four Nations tournament against Connor Hellebuck in overtime. And then you think about all these different things that happened in this game in which Connor Hellebuck came up huge. You know, it's interesting.

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I'm not here to chirp Canadians. I actually admire Canadians. I love Canadians, love the hockey.

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Chapter 2: Who are the top players in this year's NFL draft?

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We have two Canadian jerseys in here. My favorite hockey player of all time is Roger O'Bear. He's Canadian. We got Clark Gillies in here. He's Canadian. It's their home sport. It's their sport. It's one of the reasons why climbing that mountain or climbing a ladder to get there and to do it in the fashion that they did it makes it all that much more satisfying.

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And, you know, the amazing thing about all these players, you know, whether it be the Johnny Gaudreau Memorial where they took the pictures with his kids. And, you know, we're all crying for that. Whether it was, you know, the Matt Boldy, the first goal where he splits two great defenders in Cal McCarr and Devin Taves. And he somehow backhands the puck past Jordan Binnington.

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What a goal that was. And what an unexpected goal that was. And then you think about Charlie McAvoy, who is a defenseman.

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Chapter 3: What insights were shared from the NFL Scouting Combine?

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He finds himself behind the goaltender in the goal mouth and the puck goes over the goaltender and hits him in the stomach and he keeps it out of the net. Like people didn't see that or even think about that as a big play. And then that, and you know, It's a scrum. You've got guys all over the place, pucks flying every which way. You know, Nathan McKinnon missing open nets.

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Macklin Celebrini is supposed to be like one of the best, you know, one-on-one guys when it comes to breakaways. And he's always the shootout guy. And Canada made a big deal about him being the shootout guy in earlier games. Everybody looked at him to be the guy because he's a 19-year-old super stud who plays for San Jose. And Connor Hellebox stops him. He stops Connor McDavid one-on-one.

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I mean, this is just a crazy sequence of events. And then if you told me that I could have McDavid, McKinnon, and McCarr on the ice in a three-on-three situation, how do I lose that? You know why I lose that? I lose that because those guys are all offensive-minded, and they all want to win with the game-winning goal.

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And three-on-three hockey, for those who don't know about it or don't watch the game, it's a completely different strategy than five-on-five.

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Chapter 4: Why is CC Sabathia's number being retired?

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Now, I know hockey purists will tell you the game should have ended five-on-five, not three-on-three, but that's not the rules. The rules are the rules, and you play by the rules. The women, the same thing happens. And the women, to their credit, I think are ahead of the men's hockey program just simply because they've gotten a few more gold medals in these situations.

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But every player on both the men's and women's team,

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give you hope for the future i mean not just the future of hockey just the future of i think our country because of the way that they responded about usa on the front of the jersey fighting for their team pulling for their teammates loving our country knowing what it means could you imagine what those players when they pick up their phone after the games maybe when they're flying home last night and they're looking at all the the watch parties like we're just talking about yeah

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And there are a ton of them around here, of course, because this is hockey heaven around here. Everybody loves it. But there were tons of hockey parties all across North America, up in Canada as well. And maybe the Americans got a break that Sidney Crosby didn't play. Maybe the Americans got a break because Cal McCart didn't want to back check on that final goal on Jack Hughes.

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I mean, that wasn't a great pass by Rowenski to Jack Hughes in the defensive zone, but he chips it past Cal McCart. If Cal McCart gets that puck...

Chapter 5: How is the ABS challenge system performing in spring training?

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It's Cale McCarr and Connor McDavid against Connor Hellebuck, and that's it. But somehow Jack Hughes gets that chip. Wierenski sees the puck, goes and gets it, knocks Nathan McKinnon off the puck. Think about this. You're talking about the three best players in the NHL. And you have Wierenski, who's one of the better defensemen in the NHL as well.

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Jack Hughes, who really has had a tough go this season because he's been hurt. He got hurt at that dinner. He cut his hand and everything. Frank, Frank.

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the tank here with frank the tank and everything and and then all of a sudden you know it comes out of nowhere and just watching it feeling it the patriotism the pride the satisfaction the respect the dignity everything that comes along with you know an olympic victory like this like the women had on friday is just nothing short of just total satisfaction

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Yeah, I mean, a couple of those moments there when you talk about these young men and what they represent, and we've talked so many times about how annoying it can be watching some of these guys that are in pro sports these days that don't seem to want to be there, you know, or people who are taking for granted these unbelievable opportunities that they have.

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And now you've got these guys who are, yeah, they're getting paid by the NHL, but they're out there and they're playing for their country and they're playing for their teammates. And for us to see this as fans and to be like, all right, we won a gold medal in hockey for the first time in 46 years, that's a huge deal.

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But think about what these guys, from the moment that they're born, start playing hockey.

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and then they're all together, and they're doing all these things on this national level, all to build up to this moment, and there were so many groups that had dreamed of doing it but couldn't get it done, and these guys did it for all of those guys, and also they did it for Johnny Goudreau, and that is the moment of all moments.

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I'm still now getting chills watching this and obviously having the kids out there and taking the picture with his children and showing the wife. I mean, this was...

Chapter 6: What strange vibe is Gio sensing from the Knicks?

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This was better than any movie you could ever write. This was better than any script you could ever write. It was 1980 all over again, just a little bit different because the 1980 guys were amateurs. They were college kids that were brought together by the great Herb Brooks. You can't compare the two.

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But what I'm saying is that not only did those Americans beat maybe the greatest hockey team at that time. Yeah. I could also say this American team just beat the greatest hockey team of this time.

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I told you, when you think about the players on that Canadian hockey team, and maybe we caught a break that Sidney Cropsey, like I said, didn't play in this game because he's always the guy that's omnipresent in the biggest moments, and he's the unquestioned leader of Canada hockey. And he's somebody that you totally respect and get.

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And as much as I hate playing against him as a Ranger fan, I can only respect the way he plays and wish everybody would play the way that he would play and take the game as seriously. Listen, he had his moments in his career, man. I know, and against us, too. Yeah, of course. Both against the Rangers and in the Stanley Cup finals. He can get a silver every now and again. Yeah, it's all right.

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But, you know, the thing about it is also is that, you know, we often talk about culture in sports. And we always talk about how Aaron Glenn's trying to change the culture. John Harbaugh's got to change the culture. David Stearns, he's required to change the culture of the Mets. And it goes on and on and on and on and on.

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Somewhere along the line over the last 20 years, USA Hockey has figured it out. The people who run USA Hockey, if you are invited to be a part of the USA Hockey program, they are expecting you to be a certain type of person. A person who is not going to be a victim, a person who is going to rise to the occasion, a person who's going to sacrifice for their teammates, both men and women's.

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You know, it's interesting because, you know, we talked about the women a lot on Friday because of the way that that whole thing played out and everything else. You know, what was amazing to me is that so Hillary Knight, we've had her in here. She's the captain of the women's team.

Chapter 7: How does the new coaching staff impact the Knicks' performance?

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She comes down and she scores a goal. When it's six on five, the Americans got the goalie pulled. They're desperate. They have to tie the game. They got to get it into overtime. And she comes up big the night before she gets engaged to her girlfriend and they're going to get married. Did you hear anybody say anything other than how happy they were for the both of them? Well, no, of course not.

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Why? Because they want people to live their best life, to be the happiest they can be. And Hillary Knight not only topped off that, but topped it off with a gold medal. And, you know, I just think that the hockey culture has always been great because it's one of the reasons I love the sport. But I love it even more when I see kids buying into what USA Hockey is demanding.

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And what they're demanding is excellence. And they're also demanding sacrifice. A lot of these guys play 20, 22 minutes for their regular teams. Some guys get buried on the bench. And how about Vincent Trocek and Miller? When you think about what their roles were for USA Hockey... I mean, their roles were penalty kill.

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Chapter 8: What are the implications of the Yankees' pitching depth for the season?

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Bill Guerin said, I got to build a team. I can't build a team of all-stars. I got to build a team. There's got to be role players that do certain things and do certain things well, like face-offs, penalty kills. Both the men and the women were 100% on their penalty kills throughout the Olympics. And by the way, this wasn't a seven-game series. This is what makes this thing so exciting.

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It's a one-and-done, and anything can happen in that scenario. Would you believe me if I told you, now this is before the draft, this is before free agency, so it's early still, but that the Miami Dolphins have a lower over-under win total going into 2026 than the New York Jets. Yes, I would believe that simply because it looks like Miami is tearing the whole thing completely down. Yep.

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And it looks like the Jets with the draft picks and the free agency money and the new coaching hires are trying to become legitimate winners again. Yeah, they need to. Aaron Clinton needs to win. Well, it's the perception around both teams. So you have a new coach, a new GM down there. They've got to make a decision on Tua, which means that most likely he's going to be gone.

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And they may end up doing what the Broncos did with Russell Wilson, just eating the dead cat money where you can. And just move on. And like I said yesterday to you, whether or not— You believe it. I wonder whether or not Steve Ross, the owner of the Dolphins, had said to his new GM and coach, look, guys, I'm going to give you three years to fix this thing. Do what you got to do.

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I'm not worried about winning right now, which would really be a hard thing for a fan to hear from an owner. But maybe the owner is giving them free reign to do what they think is right. Also, if this is going to be a stack of a draft coming up in 2027 with the quarterback position along with Arch Manning and others, then maybe that's what they're looking for.

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Maybe this is a full tank year for them. What do you think the Giants over-under number is before free agency and before the draft? I'm going to say their number is 7.5. Yep, you nailed it, 7.5. And obviously it's much higher this year than it has been on previous two years. Yeah, and it may even go up depending on what happens with free agency in the draft.

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But right now the Eagles 10.5, Cowboys 8.5, Commanders 7.5, Giants 7.5. And then when you see what they do, listen, this has a lot to do with two things. Number one, the new head coach, and number two, the quarterback coming into his second year. And then if you want to add on to that, then it's going to be the free agent money that's going to be spent and the draft picks that they make.

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If they make a pick at No. 5 and it's one of these wide receivers that's ready to go right out of the gate, that number is going to go up. Yeah. Well, I mean, absolutely, and as well it should. And the interesting thing about this draft, all right, so one major quarterback, Fernando Mendoza, we know that. We all believe he's going to the Raiders with the No. 1 overall pick.

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The interesting thing about this draft, there are two top-end edge rushers. The kid out of Texas Tech and the kid out of Miami. Those guys are bona fide edge-rushing players, which is one of the most important positions in the league, as evidenced by the amount of money that that position is making, given the influence that they have on games.

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